DENVER – The MSU Denver women's soccer team will take a long and winding road through the remainder of its 2022 schedule.
 
The Roadrunners will travel to scenic Las Vegas, N.M., Alamosa, Colo., Gunnison, Colo., Durango, Colo., and Spearfish, S.D. while playing five of its final six regular-season games away from the friendly confines of the Assembly Athletic Complex, where they are 13-0-5 over the past two seasons.
 
First up is this weekend's trek for a 1 p.m. game Friday at New Mexico Highlands and a 1 p.m. date Sunday at Adams State. The site of the Highlands game has recently been shifted to the school's football venue – Sanchez Family Stadium.
 
"We're excited to take it on the road," said forward Jaimy Sawaged, one of the Roadrunners' captains. "I know that we're a great team. Last year we had some difficulties (on the road), but we've shown everyone in the RMAC that we are a hard team to beat and we're ready to take anything on."
 
The Roadrunners would like to make their race to the finish a magical mystery tour in which they can collect enough points to earn a potential first-round home game in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament. The top four seeds play the opening round at their home field, and as of now MSU Denver (6-2-4 overall, 2-1-3 RMAC) is tied for fourth in the league with nine points.
 
"We've got some really hard road trips coming up," MSU Denver coach Kat Mertz said. "We need to do some focusing on the little details. We talk about focusing on the process. Don't focus on the end result – getting a goal. Focus on the process of how we get a goal. Focus on having fun. Focus on getting the frustration out.
 
"Every team we play is going to pose a different problem, and we need to be able to be adaptable. We need to be able problem-solve. And we need to be able to stick to our process and our message."
 
One encouraging sign is that all five upcoming road games are against teams the Roadrunners beat at home last season. MSU Denver weekend's opponents by a combined 11-0.
 
Highlands is 0-9 overall and 0-5 in the RMAC. Adams State is 2-7 and 1-4.
 
"I think we just need to take care of our games on the road," defender Emily Sirois said. "We usually play our best at home, and I think we just need to translate what we do at home to the road and we'll be great."